Tips
Nudging
Do you want more of your customers to convert? With nudging, you can nudge your customers toward the right decision
Tips
What is a customer journey?
A customer journey describes the path a customer takes from the moment they want to buy something until the purchase is completed, and then on into the long-term use and experience of the product or service.
To be able to describe a customer journey we need to keep track of a few things:
- What steps are involved?
The steps are defined by the customer's needs in the moment - what do they want to achieve or gain clarity on right now. Do they want an overview of the selection - which products match their requirements? Do they want to compare different options? Do they want to have it confirmed that the option they are about to choose is the right one? Do they want to see prices? Do they want to be inspired?
- Where is the customer during each step?
It can be both digital channels and physical locations, depending on what is relevant for your product/service. This is important because we want to be visible where the customer is looking. - What type of information or tools are important for the customer during each step?
What does the customer need to move forward in their buying process? If the customer is currently interested in comparing different options, we should look at how they want to compare and make sure to be present and relevant there. Our goal is both to ensure that we are there when the customer makes their comparisons, and that we come across as the best or one of the best options.
How can you work on your customer journey?
A customer journey can be short and simple and it can also be long and complicated. It depends on what type of purchase is being made - a small gadget or an infrequently purchased item.
Here are a few important insights to take with you when mapping and facilitating customers' journeys.
1. Be present where your customers are
The customer journey often starts far away from the channels you own yourself, i.e. your own online presence in the form of a website, web shop, company pages on social media or customer chat.
Google, social media, listing portals, review sites, blogs and YouTube are all examples of other channels that potential customers use in their journey. If you don't show up there, you're not part of their journey either. Coordinate your marketing. Customers move around in lots of different places.
2. Provide relevant knowledge
You don't control the customer's buying journey but you can contribute material to it that increases your chances of them choosing you. Therefore focus on offering knowledge and insights that help customers move forward. People appreciate when they get insights or answers to their questions, preferably packaged in what is commonly called a "snackable format" — not too detailed and heavy but just the right amount and specific enough for them to feel satisfied. For a customer, a journey means searching for something specific for me - your job is to help them.
If the customer needs to compare: help them compare. If the customer wants an overview: give them tools to get an overview. If the customer wants confirmation: give them arguments that confirm they have made the right choice.
Also keep in mind that you are not the only option they are considering. Look at how your competitors describe themselves, assume the customer has seen that, and consider what consequences that has for how you should describe your own offering.
3. Create smooth transitions
The customer journey describes a movement from the general broad search down to the individual supplier, product or service. The smoother the transitions between the different steps are, the greater the chance that customers will continue their search with you. So what does a smooth transition mean.
An important part is not interrupting the customer's movement from the general to the specific. For example, if you advertise a van for tradespeople through paid search ads and banners, make sure to link these to a page that is about exactly that. Don't link to the homepage that talks about family cars. You also don't need to be overly salesy. The fact that the visitor arrived by clicking your offer shows there is already interest. Instead try to build on that interest with engaging content, useful tools and clear paths forward.
You also want information from different sources to fit together in a way the user perceives as natural. If, for example, you have made a film about a course you sell and it links at the end to more information, you should not immediately repeat everything you've already shown in the film. Instead go straight to the next step, e.g. the time and place where the course is held, what it costs and how to register. If you want the same information that you showed in the film, but in text, place it further down the page as a complement.
4. Don't forget the enjoyable aspects
It's easy to get stuck on everything having to be rational and fact-based. But as we've touched on, it's a mix of rational requirements and emotional impulses that guide the customer journey. A good customer journey should not only be informative and clear but also feel a little exciting for the customer. A good customer journey should be a bit like a roller coaster: the customer wants to feel safe and secure throughout the ride, but at the same time have a thrilling experience. You want the journey to follow exactly the track you have created.
Here we describe an example of an unusually long and complicated customer journey.
The family is going to buy a car - a customer journey
A family is going to buy a car. They want a station wagon and it should be a plug-in hybrid or an electric car. It should not be brand new, but it also must not have been driven more than 20,000 km. No one in the family has any specific brand requirements, but they have good experiences with the current brand because the car has lasted a long time with few expensive repairs. One family member thinks white cars are ugly. Both drivers want a slightly more powerful engine than the current one. Preferably it shouldn't cost more than SEK 320,000, but they can stretch to SEK 350,000 if they feel they get a lot extra for the additional SEK 30,000.
To go from this wish to the car being parked in the driveway, our family will undertake a customer journey.
The customer journey for a car buyer is among the most complex there is. A study by Google shows that a consumer has more than 900 digital interactions over the course of three months when buying or leasing a new car. 71% of them occur via mobile. One in four people who are in the car-buying process use their mobile every day to check cars. Much of the research done ahead of the purchase is carried out in the evenings.
Discover and create an overview
The family has no brand preference, but they want an electric car or a plug-in hybrid. They therefore start by getting an overview of which makes and models are available within these two categories.
What does one want
One wants to get an overview of the offering. Which brands and models are available? How well do they meet one's wishes? What does the price range look like? What distinguishes an electric car from a plug-in hybrid in terms of price, functionality and ownership?
Where does one turn
People search broadly and therefore the family will visit a number of different websites during this phase. On the one hand you find sites that describe the general pros and cons of owning and driving a plug-in hybrid compared with an electric car, and on the other hand you find many dealer websites and large portals that present the combined offerings from hundreds of car dealers around Sweden. All the places our family visits during this phase are digital because it feels unnecessary to go out to a dealer if you still don't know exactly what you're looking for.
What information/which tools does one use
The search engine is central in this phase. A search engine's purpose is precisely to create an overview and present information with high relevance. Google therefore becomes the starting point.
Through Google the family finds both pages for specific makes and models and general pages that focus more on technology and ownership within the electric car and plug-in hybrid segments. They also find large car portals that present a consolidated offering. With the filtering and listing tools available there you get a good picture of how the price landscape and the supply look right now.
What do you take with you to the next step
You bring a list of potential makes/models. We say list, but often it isn’t a physical list but rather a bunch of makes and models you have in your head together with associations and a bit of factual information. Not infrequently you already have some favourites — options that feel a little extra exciting, but you want to be sure you don’t rule anything out too early.
It sounds very structured and rational, but it’s more of a jumble of rational arguments and emotional preferences.
Explore, compare and select
It turns out that almost every brand offers at least one, often several plug-in hybrids. Half offer pure electric cars. But not all of them meet the family's other requirements. Already during the overview stage they filtered out the most unlikely options, i.e. those that were far too expensive, too small or for some other reason completely wrong. Again - it is not a strictly rational process. A car can be ruled out because it's ugly or because it's from a brand people generally regard as unreliable.
What do people want
You want a manageable number of options to choose from - at most a handful, probably two to three different options.
Where do you turn
Often you go back to pages you've already visited, but this time you read a little more carefully. You're also interested in being able to compare two different options side by side. For example, if a manufacturer has two different models of plug-in hybrids you want to compare price, electric range, equipment packages and the like. You're also very interested in images, reviews and tests. These can be credible sources that have test-driven the car and rated it compared with competitors in the same segment (traditional automotive journalism), or they can be reviews and ratings from real consumers. If there are videos, that's super interesting.
What information/what tools do you use?
Car brands' and dealers' websites are a common source for checking off the details you don't have a handle on. Forums, social media and videos are other places where you can get a more in-depth and slightly more personal picture.
What do you take with you to the next step?
By this stage you will probably have a favorite, sometimes with one or two alternative cars you could also consider.
Have their choice confirmed
The family has now found a car they believe in. It is a plug-in hybrid because the electric cars that cost around 300 000 kronor were either too small or had too many miles on them. Besides, a coworker happened to have one of those cars and she was very pleased.
What do people want?
Now people want confirmation that they've chosen the right model before they commit. They also want confirmation that the price is right.
Where do people turn?
That a colleague could recommend the car was, of course, a strong argument. But people also talk to friends and family about which car they plan to buy to hear what they say. It's also at this stage that they go to the dealership to look at the model. Maybe they go back to a video they've seen or a review they've read and read it once more.
What information/which tools are used
One returns to the car portal, but this time one narrows the options down to the specific model and will probably exclude cars listed by dealers that are located too far away geographically. Then one compares the individual vehicles for sale. One clicks through to the dealers and visits their websites to check where they are located and may even book a test drive.
What does one take to the next step
Assuming one has had their choice confirmed, one has now arrived at a single example of the model one has chosen, that is, a car located at a dealer.
Purchase
For many car buyers this is the first time during the entire customer journey that they physically visit the dealership. Looking at statistics, you can see that the number of dealerships a customer chooses to visit has decreased. This is because they have done a large part of their preparations online.
Previously a customer visited an average of five different dealerships. Today the figure is down to two. 38% visit only a single dealership. This trend is also seen in other physical stores, with buyers spending less time in stores even though they spend more money. The conclusion is that they have done their research before visiting the store and know what they want.
What does one want
Now one wants to make a good deal. One wants further confirmation that one has chosen the right car and to feel that one is getting it at the right price.
Where does one turn
One is physically at the dealership to sit in, take a test drive, touch and feel. One also wants the opportunity to ask questions on the spot to a real person.
What information/which tools does one use
It is not uncommon for customers to use their phones while they are at the dealer, e.g. to ensure that the price they are offered is in line with other dealers' prices. But otherwise, they want a good meeting with a knowledgeable and professional salesperson.
What do you take with you to the next step?
Hopefully a new car! But you also take with you the experience of the purchase occasion. Visiting a car dealer is generally not something customers experience as positive even though the act of getting a new car itself is a bit exciting. You feel uncertain and there is a sense that you risk being tricked or pressured into a purchase. Paperwork associated with the purchase is also something experienced as negative and lowers the overall impression of the visit to the dealer. Therefore it is important that the retailer does its utmost to minimise this feeling. That is achieved through the environment, clear information, smooth procedures and good customer service. Classic service, simply.
After the purchase
The customer journey doesn't end just because the purchase is complete. Servicing is a very profitable area for car dealers, and they therefore want the buyer to have their car serviced at the same place where they bought it. A long-term good relationship with the buyer not only increases recurring revenue over the car's entire lifetime but also makes it more likely that the customer will buy their next car from the same dealer.
A third of those who buy a new car and who use social media post a picture of the new car in their feed. 88% on Facebook, 21% on Instagram. This provides input to prospective customers who need their choices validated, for example via social media.
